Wednesday, May 14, 2008

When I logged back into LOTRO last week for the free re-trial, one of my first comments was:

On the downside, they've added an animation in which, when you go to summon your horse, your player whistles, looks around, and whistles some more for the horse to show up. This was already annoying the very first time I saw it, and LOTRO requires you to dismount a lot (e.g. to talk to anyone). /sigh.

Little did I know that I'd identified a major controversy that had just entered the game. I failed to mention that the whistle was shrill and annoying, and, worse, you'd hear any OTHER players near you making the same whistle whenever THEY had to mount up too. Quoth Patience on the LOTRO forums:"The whistle is being reviewed.We realize a lot of people hate the whistle and will be reviewing several possible solutions and potential compromises/changes. Please stop making new threads about it."

Well, apparently this was one thing they were able to review quickly - a patch today made the whistle quieter, and you only hear your own whistling. I don't know why a game with a relatively robust music system wouldn't just allow user-defined mount songs (Hi Ho, Silver!)... well, alright, I suppose I can see how idiots would ruin that. But I'm still glad for anyone who's actually still playing LOTRO that this got fixed. :)

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About Player Versus Developer

I'm what they call a "WoW Tourist" - WoW was my first MMO, and being able to set my own schedule is a dealbreaker. At any given time, I can be found ducking in and out of half a dozen different MMO's.

This blog details some of my own personal exploits, but it also focuses on a meta-gaming issue that I find very interesting - the decisions developers make on how to reward player activity, and the decisions players make in response to maximize their own rewards.